Soldering

[lobstman]

does anyone know of a good book, or online publication that is a sort of "how-to" for soldering.... soldering tips, techniques, etc.?

The Yamaha Sound Reinforcement Handbook has a good primer on soldering. That's a book everyone should own anyway.

[percussion boy]

Crown School also introduced me to 63/37 eutectic solder which has a comparatively low melting point, plus has the advantage of "clicking" from a liquid to a solid without an intermediate "pasty" mode...that latter solder state is where "cold solder joints" come from. Hence, ALWAYS use a solder with a eutectic characteristic.

Got a recommended brand, or even a Digikey/Mouser part #? Sounds like something I should be getting into for the Hamptone.

thanks for any info.

[philbo]

Some things I haven't seen in any of the other posts:

1. When soldering parts in vias, start by putting the very tip of the solder on the via, then touch the iron to the solder, pulling the solder away. Wait 1 or 2 seconds, then feed solder quickly to fill the via, and remove the iron immediately. The first solder application makes a heat bridge between the iron and the via. The 1 or 2 seconds allows the via to heat up all the way through even a 12 or 16 layer board (which would maybe be a little unusual in audio, maybe).

2. When soldering a via that goes to a buried ground or power plane (an internal layer that is pretty much solid copper) it is often useful to use 2 irons and heat both sides of the via at once. This is pretty common for power supply filter caps.

3. Don't mess with surface mount parts unless you are equipped for it. At minimum, a good stereo microscope with a light source, dental pick set, a syringe filled with flux, and very thin gauge solder (0.005" or 0.010" diameter) is needed. This is especially important with the really tiny parts, like 0.020"x0.040" 'pepper grain' resistors.
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